Watch: Communication - Aaron Taos

Aaron Taos' Communication feels like a tripped out love anthem for our time. Weird melodies slide over one another in a way that borders on discordant - like an old cassette that has seen a little too much love, the notes seem to bend and swerve and nothing feels objective. Atop of this are Taos’ vocals, which emphasise the need for communication and focused quality time in an age where such things genuinely feel far more precious and valuable than the thousand-pound smartphones we carry around with us.

I’m increasingly a strong believer in the importance of being able to talk about things with your significant other… Without clear communication it can be too easy to wind up make assumptions about what the other person wants or feels or intended with a certain action. It’s something Taos talks about when describing the motivation behind the song, including the influence of his therapist parents:

”Communication is about the importance of talking things out with your partner. I'm a pretty open person, so when there's something not sitting right between me and someone (be it lover or friend) I'm quick to want to acknowledge the issue and attempt to fix it. As I mentioned in the song, both my parent's are therapists, so blame in on that. In any case Communication is about the importance of airing things out.”

There is a psychedelic R&B feel to this that really jives with my tastes - male vulnerability and openness combined with soulful instrumentation through a weird 70s filter. It’s totally my jam, and it should be yours too.

Listen: I - CNMA

CNMA (pronounces ‘cinema’) is the musical alias of Tristan Temmel, an artist from Orlando who initial tried to break into music as part of a boy band. Having travelled to LA to put in exhausting 12-hour days practicing both singing and dancing, Tristan put some extra focus at the end of each day to learn about music production. Six months in, and the boy band thing wasn’t working out so the group decided to part ways.

After another false start that saw Tristan try and work behind the scenes on production duties with a trio of friends, he is now stepping into a new era. CNMA sees Tristan take the reigns and own the whole vision, from songwriting and production to singing and ultimately mastering.

I is a song that reflects on the experience of growing up in a post-9/11 world of increasingly extreme politics and violence. I is a record with a rawness to the production style, applying a post-grunge aesthetic to an R&B performance. The result is insistent and infectious but also feels authentic.

Watch: Subtract & Divide - Glory Daze

Glory Daze is the artistic vision of LA born artist Lea Beiley and together with childhood friend and producer J. Roosevelt she has created Subtract & Divide, a song about trying to keep your head above water in the rising tides of an emotional break-up.

The thick bass and cloying melodies of Subtract & Divide recall that queasy and complicated feeling of a love that has somehow broken down... It’s neither one emotion nor another - loss and fondness and heartbreak and desperation and hope and desire all compete, leaving you laughing one moment and distraught the next. You can hear it all here, in Beiley’s words and voice. The way she says “And I hear our last conversation in the back of my mind, all of the time” and later “You’re stuck in my head like a song on repeat”, really conveys that feeling of being ground down to dust by another person’s sudden absence.

Describing the meaning behind the song, Beiley said:

“It’s a song about wading through the aftermath of a break up, and grappling with the complex mix of nostalgia and grief that accompanies heartbreak. Especially when a relationship ends badly, I think we all to some extent end up being haunted by our memories of the good moments and wondering what parts of our experience with that person were real.”

The track is paired with a video that portrays something akin to the feeling of being pulled around emotionally when things break down, dancer Carlena’s movements jerky and forceful, as though she isn’t fully in control. Both the track and video are a little bit beautiful, despite their clear sadness.

Listen: Empty - Yoste

Empty is the latest release from Brisbane-born bedroom singer, songwriter and producer Yoste. With a lush, atmospheric atmospheric and earnest vocals, Empty is a song full of yearning and bubbles with a feeling of untapped desire.

Empty is lifted from Yoste’s forthcoming EP, Try To Be Okay, due February 15. It follows recent single Blue, also featured on the forthcoming EP, and a track that Empty follows on from. Describing the track, Yoste says:

“Empty follows Blue deliberately. In many ways it carries the same themes but finds some resolution. It's about recognising that I will never fully understand most of myself or what's around me, but there's peace in not knowing. Again, I wanted to counterbalance those quite heavy ruminations with positive instrumentation, something people could dance to and not necessarily think about. That's quite key to my approach in general - I want all the songs to have depth for those who care to look, but I don't want to beat anyone over the head with my esoteric angst.”

Check out Empty below:

Listen: First - Spill Tab

Spill Tab’s new single First has a deep, woozy feeling to it. From the ghostly opening bars, an old piano and a quiet vocal that picks its way through the wreckage there is something overwhelming about this song. It gradually builds and twists and overflows, like one of those conversations where one word leads into the other and before you know it you have said way more than you ever meant to.

Spill Tab are duo David and Claire, who collaborate to make music remotely, David from LA and Claire from New York. First is the follow-up to last year’s appropriately named debut single When U Call.

The feeling of this song feels perfect given its subject matter. First tackles the subject of seeing an ex replicating parts of your relationship with someone new, or contradicting the things they told you when you broke up. It can be an alienating and saddening experience, and the feeling of being unmoored and alone is palpable when listening to First. This is an impressively dramatic and emotional record. Check it out below: